MOST Americans – except evangelicals – reject the idea that natural disasters are divine punishment, a test of faith or some other sign from God, according to a new poll.
The poll was released recently by Public Religion Research Institute in partnership with Religion News Service and was conducted a week after a March 11 earthquake triggered a devastating tsunami and nuclear crisis in Japan.
However, nearly six in 10 evangelicals believe God can use natural disasters to send messages—nearly twice the number of Catholics (31 percent) or mainline Protestants (34 percent).
Evangelicals (53 percent) are also more than twice as likely as the one in five Catholics or mainline Protestants to believe God punishes nations for the sins of some citizens.
The poll found that a majority (56 percent) of Americans believe God is in control of the earth, but the idea of God employing nature to dispense judgment (38 percent of all Americans) or God punishing entire nations for the sins of a few (29 percent) has less support.
Some of the key findings include:
- Most white evangelicals (84 percent) and minority Christians (76 percent) believe God is in control of everything that happens in the world, compared to slimmer majorities of white mainline Protestants (55 percent) and Catholics (52 percent).
- Nearly half of Americans (44 percent) say the increased severity of recent natural disasters is evidence of biblical ‘end times’, but a larger share (58 percent) believe it is evidence of climate change. The only religious group more likely to see natural disasters as evidence of ‘end times’ (67 percent) than climate change (52 percent) is white evangelicals.
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